Luke Hartsuyker Announces 3 Measures To Cut Red Tape To Assist Job Seekers

11 Nov 2013

Luke Hartsuyker, Assistant Minister for Employment announced 3 measures which will renew the focus on assisting job seekers and cut red tape for jobs service providers.

During a meeting with the NESA (National Employment Services Association) in Sydney, Minister Hartsuyker confirmed the changes.  He said that the Coalition believes that the focus of our job service providers should be on delivering outcomes for job seekers, and not on the mountain of paperwork.

He added that as part of the Coalition’s long term commitment to ensure any Australian who is capable of working can get a job and cut red tape, this announcement is a critical small first step.

The 3 measures announced are as follows:

1. Under these changes, job service providers no longer need to retain hard copies (paper copies) of their records and keeping only electronic copies is necessary.

2. About contract guideline changes, rather than the present arrangement where contract guideline changes can be changed at any time, effective 1^st December, 2013, the changes can be made only on a quarterly basis by the Department of Employment.

3. The timeframe for lodging certain claims has been extended to 56 days from 28 days.

Minister Hartsuyker said that during his ongoing consultations, the necessity to cut red tape in the sector of employment services was raised with him consistently.

Over the past 6 weeks, Minister Hartsuyker met with representatives from the employment services sector to listen first-hand about what works and what doesn’t, specifically in relation to linkages between unemployed people, employers and service providers.

Mr Hartsuyker said the Coalition Government will keep working with the sector of employment services until there is a right balance between accountability for taxpayer funds and flexibility in service delivery.

Job Services Australia’s present contract period ends on 30^th June, 2015, which provides an opportunity to establish and deliver a more effective and efficient and better performing employment services sector.